Label



No Model.)

J'. H. SMALL. Label.

No. 231,365. Patented Aug. 17,1880.

N- PETERs. PHOTO-LITHOGHAFHER, WASHINGTGN. D C.

UNITED; STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES H." SMALL, F BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

LABEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 231,365, dated August 17, 1880. Application filed J nne 24, I880. (N0 model.)

This invention relates to a label which is designed to be affixed to packages, letters, telegrams, and other articles which are carried or transmitted by express or telegraph companies, or through the mail.

The object of my invention is to provide a ready means for keeping an account of all packages or articles carried, and the money received for carrying or transmitting the same, and to enable the sender and receiver to readily ascertain the amount charged for carrying or transmittin g the same, thereby preventing the person who collects the charges from collecting more than the amount charged by the company.

' My invention consists of a book or package of two-part labels, each composed of a stub and address portion, numbered consecutively, and provided with a value-designation, the

address portion being gummed on its reverse side, as will be hereinafter fully set forth.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of a book of my improved labels. Fig. 2 is a reverse view of one of the labels. I

Like letters of reference refer to like parts in both the figures.

A represents a number of labels numbered consecutively and provided with suitable lines or spaces to permit the insertion of the address. The name of the individual or corporation issuing the label, and the place from which the label isgood, and words indicating whether the charges are paid or to be collected, are preferably printed on the label. Each label has printed upon its face, in figures or otherwise, the designation of its value, the label represented in the drawings being of the value of fifty cents. The labels are gummed on their reverse side, so as to permit them to be readily affixed to the package, letter, or other article to be sent.

B represents the stubs, formed with thelabels and each bearing the same number, value-dew ignation, and other printed matter and spaces as the adjacent label. The lines of separation between the stubs and labels are perforated, so that each label can be readily detached from the stubs, which latter remain bound together.

When the labels are designed to be used on packages which are sent through the mails the labels have printed or otherwise secured to their address-surface a postage-stamp, or other design receivable for postage, in such manner that the act of inscribing the address will operate as a cancellation of such stamp or design.

The label represented in the drawings is adapted to be used on packages, letters, or articles which are carried by an express company for fifty cents prepaid. In using this label the address is written both upon the label and stub. The label is then detached from the stub and handed to the sender by the person who receives the price of the label at the office of the company, and the label is affixed by the sender to the package. By this means the sender is enabled to satisfy himself that he has paid only the price actually charged for the service by the company, and the company has a full record of the transaction on the stub from which the label was detached.

Books of labels of different values corresponding with the sums charged in the business in which they are used are provided, and such books may be sold to their customers by the carriers, when the labels are affixed to the packages by the sender, similarly to the manner in which postagestamps are affixed to letters. Labels of this character may also be adv-ai'itageously employed in prepaying telegraph-messages by affixing them to the messages, whereby an account of the money received for messages is kept in a very simple and efficient manner.

I am aware that revenue-stamps have been made composed of a stub and adhesive portions bound in book form, and adapted to be separated and the stamp portion affixed to the article required to be stamped, each portion having corresponding numbers and characters to identify each with the other, and I do not lay claim, broadly, to any such general construction, the gist of my invention resting in the particular and peculiar construction and arrangement of parts adapting them to the special uses described.

1 claim as my invention A book or package of two-part labels nun1- bered. consecutively, and each composed of a stub and addressportion both portions having printed on their faces a designation of their 

